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John Speaks Further About Jesus

Hoffman's portrait of ChristPart 97 of the Aquarian Gospel for Awakening

Background

“Lamaas, priest of Brahm, who was a friend of Jesus when he was in the temple of Jagannath, had heard of Jesus and his mighty works in many lands; and he had left his home and come to Palestine in search of him. And as he journeyed towards Jerusalem he heard of John, the harbinger, who was esteemed a prophet of the living God. Lamaas found the harbinger at Salim Springs; for many days he was a silent listener to the pungent truths he taught. And he was present when the Pharisee told John of Jesus and his mighty works. He heard the answer of the harbinger; heard him bless the name of Jesus; whom he called the Christ” (Aquarian Gospel 80:1-5).

John expounds the mission of Jesus

“And then he spoke to John; he said, Pray tell me more about this Jesus whom you call the Christ. And John replied, this Jesus is the love of God made manifest. Lo, men are living on the lower planes–the planes of greed and selfishness; for self they fight; they conquer with the sword. In every land the strong enslave and kill the weak. All kingdoms rise by force of arms; for force is king. This Jesus comes to overthrow this iron rule of force, and seat Love on the throne of power. And Jesus fears no man. He preaches boldly in the courts of kings, and everywhere, that victories won by force of arms are crimes; that every worthy end may be attained by gentleness and love just as the Prince of Peace, Melchisedec, the priest of God, won gallant victories in war without the shedding of a drop of blood. You ask where are the temples of the Christ? He ministers at shrines not made with hands; his temples are the hearts of holy men who are prepared to see the king. The groves of nature are his synagogues; his forum is the world. He has no priests dressed up in puppet style to be admired by men; for every son of man is priest of Love. When man has purified his heart by faith, he needs no middle man to intercede. He is on friendly terms with God; is not afraid of him, and he is able, and is bold enough, to lay his body on the altar of the Lord. Thus every man is priest, and is himself a living sacrifice. You need not seek the Christ, for when your heart is purified the Christ will come, and will abide with you for evermore” (Aquarian Gospel 80:6-19).

And then he spoke to John; he said, Pray tell me more about this Jesus whom you call the Christ. And John replied, this Jesus is the love of God made manifest. Talk is cheap and talk about love is particularly cheap. Few things are more tiresome than having to listen to it, so much so that when the real thing comes into our life sphere we tend to ignore or reject it. Once we were visited by a saint who truly was a heavenly man and an earthly angel. He gently put both his hands on my arms and said: “Please accept my love,” and then kissed me on both cheeks. The love he radiated was very tangible–and his humility, as well. Yet it took a few moments to adjust to meeting a sincerely loving person. So when we read that Saint John calls Jesus “the love of God made manifest” it is not some cute bit of spiritual theatrics but straight truth. God is love (I John 4:8, 16), and since Jesus was in total, absolute union with God, he was truly love made manifest. And this was his continual state, not something that increased or decreased or came and went. He is not just our friend, he is our beloved friend. Churches commit a terrible evil when they make people think Jesus is adversary, judge, and coming punisher of evil. Rather, his mission is to “take away the sins of the world” by showing us path to freedom.

Lo, men are living on the lower planes–the planes of greed and selfishness; for self they fight; they conquer with the sword. In every land the strong enslave and kill the weak. All kingdoms rise by force of arms; for force is king. This Jesus comes to overthrow this iron rule of force, and seat Love on the throne of power. This will have nothing to do with political power; it will be a reign of love in the hearts of those who purify themselves so God can be enthroned in their consciousness. When this happens, their silent, invisible influence will help those around them to temper their “might is right” philosophy with a more spiritually intelligent view. This will not happen overnight, and not without a backlash from those who worship evil, but it will steadily gain ground. When Jesus comes among us for the second time it will be an assured thing. Nevertheless it will take much evolution for everyone on the earth to truly have peace in their heart. But it will come.

And Jesus fears no man. He preaches boldly in the courts of kings, and everywhere, that victories won by force of arms are crimes. We, too, must fear nothing, for that is a fundamental trait of virtue: fearlessness. Since none of us are forces in the political arena of the world we need to understand this principle as it applies to the life of an individual: anything attained by force or coercion of any kind is an evil. This is true in every situation. The only lawful coercion of any kind is that of self-discipline. We have the right to force ourselves because we own ourselves and are answerable to ourselves. But in relation to others there can be no such thing. “Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law” (Romans 13:8).

That every worthy end may be attained by gentleness and love just as the Prince of Peace, Melchisedec, the priest of God, won gallant victories in war without the shedding of a drop of blood. To be “a priest after the order of Melchisedec” is to be a master who conquers by gentleness and love. It can be done, for I have seen it in the lives of saints I have known, especially in Swami Sivananda. Yogananda, too, was such a one. More than once people who tried to rob him were transformed by his love. One mentally ill man was planning to shoot him, but Yogananda just looked at him with love and the man dropped the gun and said: “Forgive me: you have taken my evil away.” Sister Vijaya told me that many times when traveling with Yogananda she saw crude and bullying men come up and say: “Just what are you?” because of his long hair and orange clothing. She said that Yogananda would smile at them and tell them a little about himself. “They would turn away and weep like little children,” she told me, “because for the first time in their life they experienced being loved.” As the hymn says: “For his love has been so gracious, it has won my heart at last.”

You ask where are the temples of the Christ? He ministers at shrines not made with hands; his temples are the hearts of holy men who are prepared to see the king. Jesus clearly said: “My kingdom is not of this world,” but for two thousand years Churchians have refused to believe it, insisting that the Church of Christ is an earthly institution with administrators to keep people in line. Certainly those who live in Christ’s kingdom through their spiritual awakening possess physical bodies and will naturally gather with those of similar spiritual orientation to inspire one another in their devotion. They may erect buildings for their assembly, but they know the Church is an association of hearts whose rule is love not dogma. And most of all they know that no human agency can admit anyone to the Church nor can any human authority close the doors against anyone or expel them. Each person does that himself. Certainly the Church is entered and exited, but only by the disposition of the spirits of those without and within it.

Limited as its theology was, I was fortunate to be raised in a denomination that did not even keep membership records because they said the Church cannot be joined externally, but only through the life of the spirit. They accepted everyone who was “of the spirit” as their brothers and sisters. They did not care about their ideas of doctrine, but only that they should have the “life in Christ” that sets them free (Romans 8:2). And they did not expect them to join our group. As you might expect, our little denomination was small, but there were other, equally small, groups that felt the same way and followed the same way of the love of Christ.

To be a temple of Christ our hearts must be pure and prepared to “see the King”–to rise into the vision of God. The Kingdom is within and so must our life be centered within where we can live with Christ–if we so will.
The groves of nature are his synagogues; his forum is the world. The whole world is “the house of God” where He can be met everywhere.

He has no priests dressed up in puppet style to be admired by men; for every son of man is priest of Love. When man has purified his heart by faith, he needs no middle man to intercede. No one speaks for God but God himself. That does not mean we should not listen to those who have experience in spiritual life and respectfully consider their words, but ultimately we are going to have to follow our spiritual intuition. Again, purification is necessary for the Christ-life.

He is on friendly terms with God; is not afraid of him, and he is able, and is bold enough, to lay his body on the altar of the Lord. Thus every man is priest, and is himself a living sacrifice. God is the last person we should fear, for the essence of spiritual life is loving communication with Him. The Bible tells us that “the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend” (Exodus 33:11). But the requisite is the final step in yoga: Ishwarapranidhana: the giving of our life to God. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:1, 2). This is a high ideal, but so is friendship with God.

You need not seek the Christ, for when your heart is purified the Christ will come, and will abide with you for evermore. Yogananda often spoke of this fact, saying that when we expand our consciousness enough “God will automatically get into you” and make us His living temple.

Lama meets Jesus

“And then Lamaas journeyed on; he came to Jesus as he taught beside the ford. And Jesus said, Behold the Star of India! Lamaas said, Behold the Sun of Righteousness! And he confessed his faith in Christ, and followed him” (Aquarian Gospel 80:20-22).

Lamaas knew who Jesus was and Jesus knew the truth of Lamaas’ being, so they were at one. To follow Jesus is to know him; to know Jesus is to follow him.

Read the next section in the Aquarian Gospel for Yogis: The Woman at the Well

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The Aquarian Gospel—Commentary and Text

The Aquarian Gospel for Awakening—A Commentary on the Aquarian Gospel
by Swami Nirmalananda Giri (Abbot George Burke)

  1. The Mother of Jesus
  2. Prophecies of the Births of Saint John the Baptist and Jesus
  3. The Birth of Jesus
  4. Revelations in the Temple
  5. Coming of the Wise Men
  6. Herod’s Reaction
  7. Revelations in Egypt
  8. The Two Selfs
  9. Deliverance From Gods and Demons
  10. About God the Tao
  11. From India to Chaldea
  12. The Wisdom of Buddha
  13. God and Prayer
  14. The Mission of Jesus and John the Baptist
  15. Sin and the Forgiveness of Sin
  16. The Universal Law of Man’s Free Will and the Divine Will For Man
  17. Understanding Death
  18. The True Teacher
  19. The Value of Ritual
  20. The Law Behind All Laws
  21. Opening To The Truth
  22. In the Temple at the Age of Ten
  23. Revelation to the Teachers and People in the Temple
  24. Jerusalem to Nazareth
  25. Nazareth to India
  26. What is Truth?
  27. What Is Man?
  28. What is Power?
  29. Understanding
  30. Wisdom
  31. Faith
  32. Healing and Healers
  33. Conflict Over Caste
  34. The Destiny of All Men
  35. God and Man
  36. The Voice in the Heart
  37. Seeing the Unseeable
  38. To God Through Man
  39. Who Is Jesus?
  40. The Real Versus The Apparent
  41. The Brotherhood of Life
  42. God…and Man
  43. Relating To God
  44. The Worthy Host
  45. Come to the Light
  46. The Kingdom Revealed
  47. The King Revealed
  48. Perspective On Death
  49. Fire and Sword
  50. Evolution: The Path of Glory
  51. The Real Heaven
  52. Getting to the Essence
  53. New Perspective on Religion
  54. In Tibet and Ladakh
  55. Words to the Worthy
  56. The Thirty-Eighth Chapter
  57. The Origin of Evil
  58. The Silence
  59. The Source of Healing
  60. The Fivefold Gospel
  61. Homecoming
  62. In Athens
  63. The Oracle of Delphi
  64. The Real God
  65. Return to Egypt
  66. First Steps to Wisdom
  67. Strong in Will and Intent
  68. Here Comes the Ego
  69. Blessed are the Merciful
  70. Claiming Our Freedom
  71. The Great Test
  72. Comprehending Death
  73. The Christ!
  74. The Asembly of the Masters
  75. The Seven Pillars of the Aquarian Age – I
  76. The Seven Pillars of the Aquarian Age – II
  77. The Declaration of Jesus
  78. John the Baptist – I
  79. John the Baptist – II
  80. John the Baptist – III
  81. Baptism – Jesus and John
  82. Self-Examination and Temptation
  83. The First Disciples Follow Jesus
  84. Jesus’ First Sermon
  85. The King and the Kingdom
  86. Dealing With Challengers
  87. The First Miracle of Jesus
  88. Kings and Kingdoms
  89. The Temple of God
  90. What Is A Messiah?
  91. The Laws of Healing
  92. Nicodemus Finds The Kingdom
  93. The Prince of Peace
  94. Dealing With Spiritual Opposition
  95. The Opened Gate
  96. John the Baptist Speaks of the Christ
  97. John Speaks Further About Jesus
  98. The Woman at the Well
  99. The Disciples and Samaritans at the Well
  100. Jesus in Sychar
  101. More Wisdom In Samaria
  102. The Imprisonment of John the Baptist
  103. In Jerusalem
  104. The Insights of Jesus
  105. Sabbath Wisdom
  106. Prayer and Good Deeds
  107. Divine Laws and Principles for Seekers of the Divine
  108. A New Understanding of the Ten Commandments
  109. Aspects of the Higher Law – 1
  110. Aspects of the Higher Law – 2
  111. Aspects of the Higher Law – 3
  112. Aspects of the Higher Law – 4
  113. Chapter One Hundred One
  114. Chapter One Hundred Two
  115. Chapter One Hundred Three
  116. Chapter One Hundred Four
  117. Chapter One Hundred Five
  118. Chapter One Hundred Six
  119. Chapter One Hundred Seven
  120. Chapter One Hundred Eight
  121. Chapter One Hundred Nine
  122. Chapter One Hundred Ten
  123. Chapter One Hundred Eleven
  124. Chapter One Hundred Twelve
  125. Chapter One Hundred Thirteen
  126. Chapter One Hundred Fourteen
  127. Chapter One Hundred Fifteen
  128. Chapter One Hundred Sixteen
  129. Chapter One Hundred Seventeen
  130. Chapter One Hundred Eighteen
  131. Chapter One Hundred Nineteen
  132. Chapter One Hundred Twenty
  133. Chapter One Hundred Twenty One
  134. Chapter One Hundred Twenty Two
  135. Chapter One Hundred Twenty Three
  136. Chapter One Hundred Twenty Four
  137. Chapter One Hundred Twenty Five
  138. Chapter One Hundred Twenty Six
  139. Chapter One Hundred Twenty Seven
  140. Chapter One Hundred Twenty Eight
  141. Chapter One Hundred Twenty Nine
  142. Chapter One Hundred Thirty
  143. Chapter One Hundred Thirty One
  144. Chapter One Hundred Thirty Two
  145. Chapter One Hundred Thirty Three
  146. Chapter One Hundred Thirty Four
  147. Chapter One Hundred Thirty Five
  148. Chapter One Hundred Thirty Six
  149. Chapter One Hundred Thirty Seven
  150. Chapter One Hundred Thirty Eight
  151. Chapter One Hundred Thirty Nine
  152. Chapter One Hundred Forty
  153. Chapter One Hundred Forty One
  154. Chapter One Hundred Forty Two
  155. Chapter One Hundred Forty Three
  156. Chapter One Hundred Forty Four
  157. Chapter One Hundred Forty Five
  158. Chapter One Hundred Forty Six
  159. Chapter One Hundred Forty Seven
  160. Chapter One Hundred Forty Eight
  161. Chapter One Hundred Forty Nine
  162. Chapter One Hundred Fifty
  163. Chapter One Hundred Fifty-One
  164. Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Two
  165. Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Three
  166. Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Four
  167. Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Five
  168. Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Six
  169. Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Seven
  170. Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Eight
  171. Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Nine
  172. Chapter One Hundred Sixty
  173. Chapter One Hundred Sixty One
  174. Chapter One Hundred Sixty Two
  175. Chapter One Hundred Sixty Three
  176. Chapter One Hundred Sixty Four
  177. Chapter One Hundred Sixty Five
  178. Chapter One Hundred Sixty Six
  179. Chapter One Hundred Sixty Seven
  180. Chapter One Hundred Sixty Eight
  181. Chapter One Hundred Sixty Nine
  182. Chapter One Hundred Seventy
  183. Chapter One Hundred Seventy One
  184. Chapter One Hundred Seventy Two
  185. Chapter One Hundred Seventy Three
  186. Chapter One Hundred Seventy Four
  187. Chapter One Hundred Seventy Five
  188. Chapter One Hundred Seventy Six
  189. Chapter One Hundred Seventy Seven
  190. Chapter One Hundred Seventy Eight
  191. Chapter One Hundred Seventy Nine
  192. Chapter One Hundred Eighty
  193. Chapter One Hundred Eighty One
  194. Chapter One Hundred Eighty Two

The Text of the Aquarian Gospel—by Levi Dowling

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